What is it about?
People not attending the psychiatric out-patient clinic following their first visit is fairly high. Are there ways to help them to attend more? Maybe by a telephone call or a letter reminding them that they missed their last appointment? This is a study done to evaluate if telephone or postal reminders actually reduced the number of people who missed their follow up appointments.
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Photo by Martha Dominguez de Gouveia on Unsplash
Why is it important?
Since it is a simple step, if we find that it works, we can recommend others to do same. That would reduce the number of people who miss to attend the clinic for follow up. In other words, more people would continue to attend the clinic and receive the care they need to get better and stay well. This study showed that such a reminder is effective in doing that!
Perspectives
This was my study, done in 2005/6 as part of my MD in Psychiatry qualification.
Dr. Mahesh Rajasuriya
University of Colombo
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Effectiveness of reminders in reducing non-attendance among out-patients, The Psychiatrist, November 2010, Royal College of Psychiatrists,
DOI: 10.1192/pb.bp.109.029264.
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